Battlefield Tour of the Somme: Itinerary
Example Itinerary only - this can be adjusted to suit individual groups - please contact to discuss your requirements
Arrive Orchard Barn B&B on Friday afternoon, where you will met by David and Alison and over a cup of tea and slice of home made cake you will be given an overview of the forthcoming tour and travel arrangements. Your evening meal can be taken at a good selection of local public houses or restaurants. All are within easy reach of Orchard Barn.- We depart early Saturday morning for Eurotunnel to catch the shuttle to Coquelles, France (journey time on the shuttle takes 30 minutes). You will be provided with a packed breakfast and supplied with hot and cold drinks.
- Our journey to the Somme battlefield should take just under two hours from Coquelles.
- Your guided tour will commence from the Thiepval memorial to the missing on the Somme, designed by Lutyens and commemorating 73,000 officers and men. Here you will be given an overview of the offensive from 1st July through to November 1916 and examine some of the men commemorated on the memorial, including the composer George Butterworth.
- We will then spend some time at the new visitor centre at Thiepval before moving onto the Ulster Tower.
Our tour then takes us over the river Ancre to the Newfoundland Memorial Park and visitor centre, where you will be able to see a preserved section of trenches at Beaumont Hamel and learn of the assault by 29th Division on 1st July.- Then we go to see the Hawthorne Crater, caused by the detonation of 40,600 lb tons of ammonal on 1st July and a subsequent mine in November 1916.
- Lunch will be taken at Avril William’s restaurant in Auchonvillers where you will be given the opportunity to look at a recently excavated British communication trench.
- After lunch we visit the Sheffield Memorial Park and CWGC cemetery at Railway Hollow, to see where the Yorks and Lancaster regiment launched their assault on 1st July 1916.
- Then onto Serre Number 2, CWGC cemetery, where there are 7100 burials, making the cemetery the second largest on The Western Front.
- Upon returning to Orchard Barn B& B, guests will be provided with a two course evening meal with wine.
- Saturday night is spent at Orchard Barn with guests either departing after breakfast on Sunday morning or alternatively staying additional nights if arranged outside the package.
The trip is ideal for anyone visiting the Somme for the first time to gain an insight into what took place on 1st July and the successive actions up until the end of November 1916.
